


Inquiries

by being_alive



Category: Romeo And Juliet - All Media Types, Romeo And Juliet - Shakespeare, Romeo et Juliette - Presgurvic, Rómeó és Júlia (Színház)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - Juliet Lives, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Older Man/Younger Woman, POV Third Person, so does Paris but that's not as important
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-03
Updated: 2019-04-03
Packaged: 2020-01-04 10:00:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18341387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/being_alive/pseuds/being_alive
Summary: Five things Juliet asks of Escalus, and the one thing she doesn't have to.





	Inquiries

**Author's Note:**

> I remembered that the whole 5 things + 1 fics were a thing, so of course I had to write one for these two.

**I**

Escalus rushes down the hallway to the stairs as quickly as he can, and then down the stairs until he reaches who the servingman who had awoken him described as his visitors. One of them is the Friar Lawrence, and the other is Juliet, Juliet who he had thought dead, Juliet who is sitting on one of the benches against the wall, her eyes closed and face pale.

"Thank you for seeing us at this hour," the Friar says, smiling but not happily.

"What happened, Lawrence?" Escalus asks, looking to Juliet and then back to the man in front of him. The Friar glances over at Juliet as well and then back to Escalus as he begins, "Her parents were going to force her to marry Paris, so she came to me for help."

"So she only appeared to be dead," Escalus says, putting those few pieces together.

"Yes," the Friar replies before continuing, "She's still coming out of it, but I couldn't leave her in the crypts. God may be the only one who knows for sure what would've happened had I left her, but I can hazard a guess. There was supposed to be a letter, but then something happened and Romeo didn't receive it, and, and, and..."

The Friar trails off, so Escalus says for him, "And now he's dead."

"Yes," the Friar admits, hanging his head in shame. Escalus had heard rumors of romance between Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, and now he supposes that this confirms all he'd heard.

"Why did you bring her to me, of all people?" Escalus asks, peering at the Friar in confusion.

"Because as the Prince of Verona, you are the most able to keep her safe," the Friar replies.

"Have you forgotten that it is my own nephew who was supposed to marry her?" Escalus asks, laughing bitterly.

"Even so," the Friar replies, looking to Juliet as he continues, "She's starting to wake again. I must return to the crypts before news starts to spread."

Escalus nods and then the Friar is rushing past him and out, and he's alone with Juliet. He turns to look at her, and sees that some of the color is starting to return to her face. Perhaps he's just getting old, or perhaps he hadn't ever seen her often enough, but he'd never realized just how young she is, barely more than a child. As he muses, she blinks her eyes open and stands on unsteady feet. He steps forward to help steady her, and she looks up at him in confusion as she says, groggily, "Prince Escalus." 

"You're in my house," he begins as she starts to look around, patting her arm gently before releasing her as he says, "Lawrence brought you to me."

 _"Where is Romeo?"_ Juliet asks, suddenly panicked, staring up at him, her eyes wide and her bottom lip quivering. He's no stranger to loss, having buried his parents and one of his sisters long ago and that sister's younger son only recently, which has left him with the knowledge that delaying the reveal only makes matters worse, so he states, simply, "Dead."

She collapses into wailing sobs, falling to the floor as she cries. It pains him to see her like this, but he's not sure what to do, or even what he should do. He carefully sits down beside her, and lets her turn and cry into him.

\---

**II**

Escalus stays with Juliet that first night, even after he's escorted her to an empty bedroom and she's fallen asleep, tired from crying. While he doesn't know her that well, he does know what it's like to be in her position, and because of that and what the Friar told him, he's fearful to leave her alone. So he doesn't. He sits in a chair beside the bed, and even dozes off there at one point. He still wakes up before she does, and breathes a sigh of relief to find her still asleep.

When she wakes, her expression is quick to turn to disappointment. 

"Good morning," he says, slowly, hesitantly.

"I had hoped that I had just been dreaming," Juliet says, sitting up and looking at him.

"I'm sorry that you were not," he replies. She goes silent for a moment, staring out the window, and when she speaks it is to say, "I wish that I were dead."

"I have often wished the same for myself," he replies, quietly, thinking of his losses and of hers as well.

"Yet here you stand before me, alive," Juliet says, staring straight at him. Escalus sighs and then admits, "Because of duty."

"I have no duties," Juliet replies, sadly, bitterly.

"You have a duty to yourself," he responds, and then adds, "And to the dead."

Juliet says nothing in response, simply tucks her knees up to her chest, and it is then that he realizes that it is a wedding dress she wears. His stomach turns and to distract himself, he asks, "Will you tell me about everything that happened? And about Romeo?"

So she does, starting with how she and Romeo met at the ball and ending with her drinking what was meant to make her appear dead, so that she could leave Verona with Romeo. By the time she's finished, she's in tears again, and he's close to crying as well. It's his own damn fault that the boy is dead, he thinks, because if he hadn't exiled him, this never would've happened. But at the same time, he had to do something to punish him for the death of Tybalt.

A knock sounds on the door, startling him from his thoughts and Juliet from her sobbing. Escalus slowly stands and walks to open the door. Upon doing so, he finds a servingman standing outside, who says, "I am sorry to bother you, my Prince, but Lord Capulet is here to see his daughter."

Escalus glances back at Juliet and then back to the servingman before saying, "Send him to my study and tell him I'll be with him shortly."

The servingman nods and turns to walk away, and Escalus slowly shuts to the door before turning back to Juliet.

"You're welcome to stay in here while I speak with him," Escalus says, but Juliet shakes her head and replies while standing up, "No. I should come with you."

He nods and then opens the door again. Slowly, they make their way from this bedroom to his study, Escalus walking ahead with Juliet trailing behind him. Too soon, they've reached the door of his study, and with a sigh he opens it.

Surely enough, Lord Capulet is there, along with Paris. He steps inside and greets them while Juliet lingers briefly in the doorway before walking inside. Her expression turns from one of grief to one of anger as she stares at her father and Escalus's nephew. He's not sure if Paris is here as a show of support for Lord Capulet, or to press the issue of marriage again, and he's not entirely sure he wants to know which is the correct assumption.

"I am here to ask that my daughter be returned to me, returned home where she belongs," Lord Capulet says, his eyes never leaving Juliet. He hasn't even finished speaking when Juliet moves to stand in front of Escalus.

 _"Don't make me return to them,"_ she pleads, grabbing the front of his shirt and looking up at him with brown eyes full of desperation.

His eyes meet hers and he nods before looking to Lord Capulet over the top of her head as he says, "It would seem as if the decision has been made."

"Uncle," Paris begins, incredulous, stepping forward, but Escalus raises a hand to silence him.

"The decision has been made," Escalus repeats. Lord Capulet opens his mouth as if to speak, only to close it again and nod, his eyes filled with dull resignation.

\---

**III**

The library in Escalus's house has always been his sanctuary, from the time since he was a boy. Growing up, his sisters had been older than him, much older, and more concerned with their own lives than spending time their child of a brother and his parents had been otherwise too busy, so the books in this room had become his companions. They still are, but now he has company more often than not. 

Juliet has recently taken to following him into the library, and sitting near where he does. Sometimes she reads, sometimes she embroiders, and sometimes he'll glance up at her and find her simply studying him. If it were anyone else, he would take issue, but with her it's different. Her being here with him is just that, as it means that she hasn't left him, and hasn't left herself either. Today, Juliet has chosen to sit beside him, close enough that their knees touch, while she embroiders and he reads.

 _"Will you read to me?"_ Juliet asks, suddenly, distracting him from his reading. She glances down at the open pages of his book and then up to his face. Her eyes, big and brown and sad meet his, and Escalus finds himself nodding and flipping back to the beginning of the chapter. As he begins to read, she sets her embroidery to the side and her head comes to rest on his shoulder. He balances his book on his lap, using one hand to flip the pages as he slowly, hesitantly strokes her hair with his other.

\---

**IV**

A clap of thunder is what wakes Escalus up, but it is the knocking on his bedroom door that keeps him awake. He rubs his eyes with his hands and then crawls out of bed and makes his way to the door. Upon opening it, he finds Juliet standing there, wide-eyed and nightgown-clad.

 _"Please, let me stay with you,"_ she says, quietly, from his doorway. His breath catches in his throat at the sight of her and he finds that in the amount of time she's been living with him it's been getting increasingly hard to say no to her. 

This is no exception. 

He says nothing and simply steps to the side. Juliet walks in as he shuts the door, looking around and then making her way to his bed. This is far from proper, and he knows this, but that doesn't even really matter, not now that all the people who might've are dead or otherwise irrelevant. He stands there and watches her as she slips under the covers. 

Swallowing hard, he slowly makes his way back to his bed and then gets in beside her.

"Thank you," Juliet says, quietly. He simply nods in response before laying down beside her. After a moment, Juliet says, "I'm sorry about this. I've never liked the thunder but it's worse now, after everything that's happened."

"You don't have to explain yourself to me," he tells her, softly, reaching out and smoothing a hand over the soft strands of her yellow hair.

"Thank you," she repeats, and moves herself closer to him. After several long moments of internal consideration, he pulls her even closer than that. Juliet doesn't seem to mind, and he can hear what sounds like a contented sigh.

He falls asleep to the sound of the rain outside and the warmth of the girl in his arms.

\---

**V**

Juliet has been living with him for nearly a year when he starts to notice that something about her has changed, something in the way she regards him, something different in the look in her eyes. However, he can't quite place what has changed, not until one evening in the following Spring, when they're sharing dinner in his study.

 _"Marry me,"_ she says, suddenly, and when he looks at her in surprise, he finds her brown eyes to be full of intensity.

"You can't be serious," he says after a moment, staring down at her.

"I am," Juliet replies, her brown gaze boring into his hazel one.

"But why?" Escalus asks, before adding, "Why me?"

"You know as well as I do that Paris has renewed his attempts to win my hand, and much like before, I have no desire to wed him," Juliet says in return, pausing before continuing, "It is my understanding that you are still unmarried, and you have been nothing but kind to me, and marrying you is a guarantee that I will never have to marry him or any other man."

"All right," he responds after a moment, and then adds, "We shall be wed, then." 

For the first time since she's come into his house, she smiles. His stomach does a curious flip and they are married within the fortnight.

\---

_**I**_

_Do you love me?_ is the question Juliet finds herself often thinking, at least in their first few years together. He never says it, never even gives any hint of feeling anything towards her, even as she finds herself growing more and more attached to him. She's not sure if she loves him, not completely at least. She's fond of him, and being married to him offers her protection, but there is part of her that wants love, wants to be loved, wants what she had with Romeo, sweet Romeo, for the all too brief time they were together. 

She ponders that question often, until the one day she doesn't have to anymore. 

"I love you," Escalus tells her, late one night, after they've both gotten in bed, and it surprises her to hear him say it. After a moment's pause, he continues, "I understand if you need more time to think about how you feel, and about if you even feel for me. I just thought you should know of my own feelings for you." 

"Thank you," Juliet says, smiling as she moves herself to lay closer to him. Escalus nods, and wraps an arm around her, resting his chin against the top of her head as he pulls her closer to him. 

He is older than her and far from traditionally handsome, his hair nearly all grey by now though more from stress than age, serious to the point of never smiling, and above all else, he is not Romeo. But he is alive, and he loves her, and well, she supposes that's good enough for her. 


End file.
